In legacy versions of Final Cut Pro you had to set scratch disks to manage where your video data and cache files would be stored. And you were limited to twelve drives at any one time. Final Cut Pro X makes it easier to specify where your video and project files are stored, automatically saving your Events and Projects in the Movies folder by default. But have no fear, your Events and Projects can be stored on any drive connected to your Mac, and you can easily move existing Events and Projects between drives when needed to keep your stories organized

Where The Wild Things Are

When you launch Final Cut Pro it checks for available hard drives and valid Event and Project files on those drives. FCPX displays a listing of mounted hard drives, and Events and Projects stored on those drives, in the Event and Project Libraries. The default location for Events and Projects on your Boot drive is the Movies folder in your Home folder.

The default location for Events and Projects on additional hard drives is the root or top level.

In either location, the Events will be stored in a Final Cut Events folder, Projects in a Final Cut Projects folder and Camera Archives in a Final Cut Camera Archives folder.

This tutorial will guide you through adding Events and Projects to other drives besides the boot drive, and moving Events and Projects to new locations.

New Eventualities

Let’s start by creating a new Event in the Event Library on Macintosh HD (the default boot drive).

1. In the Event Library click Macintosh HD to select it.

NOTE: You may have renamed your boot drive to something other than Macintosh HD. In these screen shots, for example, the boot drive is named InkBook HD. If you have renamed your boot drive, simply select that drive’s name in the Event Library.

2. From the Menu Bar choose File>New Event, or type Option-N on the Keyboard.

NOTE: You can also right or control-click on the drive and choose New Event from the Shortcut Menu.

A new event will appear indented below the name of the hard drive, ready to be given a proper name.

The default name for new Events is New Event followed by the current date.

3. Type the name Relocate 01 and press the Return key to rename the Event.

Now you’ll add a new Event to a secondary external drive.

NOTE: If you haven’t already, be sure to connect a secondary external hard drive. You don’t need to quit Final Cut Pro, just connect the drive. Once it mounts, it will appear in the Event and Project Libraries.

1. In the Event Library, right or control-click on the external hard drive and choose New Event from the Shortcut Menu that pops up.

2. Rename the New Event to Relocate 02.

Now you have two Events on different hard drives. Let’s repeat the same process to create two new projects.

Second Verse Same as the First

The procedure to add Projects is the same as adding Events to Final Cut Pro.

1. In the Timeline click the Show Project Library Button to access the Project Library.

2. In the Project Library click the boot drive (again usually Macintosh HD, but you may have named it differently) to select it.

3. From the Menu Bar choose File>New Project

A New Project Sheet will drop down.

4. In the New Project Sheet set the name to Relocate 01, select the Relocate 01 Event from the Default Event pop-up Menu, and leaving the remaining options at the default settings. Click Okay.

The new Project is added to the Project Library indented below the selected hard drive.

Now add a new Project to the external hard drive.

5 In the Project Library, right or control-click the external hard drive and choose New Project from the Shortcut Menu.

The New Project Sheet appears.

6. In the New Project Sheet set the name to Relocate 02, select the Relocate 02 Event from the Default Event pop-up Menu, and leave the remaining options at the default settings. Click Okay.

7. A new Project appears below the external hard drive.

So all it takes to add Events and Projects to different hard drives is to simply select the hard drive first in the Event or Project Libraries prior to creating the Event or Project. But what if you need to move an existing Event or Project to a different drive to keep related elements together, back up existing work, or share Projects and Events with different editing stations?

Every Day I'm Shufflin'

Final Cut Pro makes it quite easy to relocate Events and Projects to different hard drives when needed. Let’s start by moving an Event from the boot drive to the external drive and then do the same thing with a Project

1. In the Event Library, click the Relocate 02 Event to select it.

2. From the Menu Bar choose File>Move Event.

The Move Event Sheet will appear.

3. From the Location pop-up Menu choose the hard drive the Event will be moved to and click Okay.

NOTE: If there is only one external hard drive connected, it will automatically be selected.

4. The Event will now be listed under the external hard drive and not the original hard drive.

NOTE: If your Event did not move to the new hard drive location in the Event Library, chances are that the Event did not have any clips in it. As of this writing when moving an empty Event, the Event files will be copied to the Final Cut Events folder on the new hard drive, but not removed from the original drive, so the Event files are on both drives, but the Event will still be listed under the original drive in the Event Library. If you quit and relaunch Final Cut Pro you will get the error message displayed below. Moving Empty Events is not recommended.

Moving Projects is just as easy.

1. In the Project Library click to select a Project to be moved.

2. From the Menu Bar choose File>Move Project.

3. The Movie Project Sheet will appear.

4. In the Move Project Sheet select the hard drive to move the Project to from the Location Menu, and also choose an option to move just the Project, or the Project and its referenced Events. Click Okay.

5. The Project is now listed under the external hard drive in the Project Library.

NOTE: A referenced Event is any Event from which video has been edited into a Project. Projects can have several Events referenced depending on how many Events have clips edited into the Project. You should be careful moving Events that are referenced by more than one Project, as you could unintentionally remove an Event still referenced by other Projects.

No More Brooms

Finally, what if you don’t want to move the Event or Project, but merely wish to copy them to the new location? Then you can use the Duplicate option. There are two ways to duplicate Events or Projects.

2. From the Menu Bar choose either File>Duplicate Event, or File Duplicate Project

3. A Duplicate Event or Project Sheet will appear. In the Duplicate Event Sheet, set the new Event name and location. In the Duplicate Project Sheet, set the new Project Name, location, and options to copy the referenced Events.

4. Click Okay.

A copy of the Event or Project will be made in the new location. This is helpful when sharing project elements with different editing stations.

The second method to duplicate Events or Projects is to simply drag the Event or Project to the new location. The green plus sign will appear to indicate that a copy is being made. As with the previous duplication method, the Duplicate Event or Project Sheets will appear to allow you to set the name, location and other options.

Final Cut Pro provides new and different options for managing your media.

NOTE: While it is possible to move and duplicate Events and Projects in the Finder, Apple recommends that you always perform these functions form within Final Cut Pro, to minimize any potential problems, like FCPX not recognizing your Events, Projects, or even your media drive.